I was honestly expecting this to take way longer to arrive, but alas, my DF54 (V4) is here.

The first thing I noticed was the heft. This thing weighs about 11lbs. I knew the weight before getting it but it still surprised me. It’s all metal with a beefy motor so it makes sense, but still. Heavy (in a good way, it feels quality).

I pulled two shots with it and the Robot, still trying to figure out grind size for this one. I went way too fine the first time, and the second one was still a bit too fine but significantly better. Hopefully my third shot (either decaf later this evening or regular tomorrow morning) is better. Both shots still tasted great though, thanks to the Robot. I’m still completely in love with this brewer.

It’s weird they came so close together, I’m still very much in the honeymoon phase with the Robot and now I’ve got a new toy to play with already, but I’m not complaining.

Something that really surprised me about the DF54 was just how quiet it is. I’m not really sure what I was expecting, I looked up videos online so I knew what the sound was like, but I just expected the volume to be turned up a bit. Without beans this thing is really quite quiet, it’s like a low hum. When grinding it’s still not that bad. I was worried about using this at 4:30am when my baby and wife are still asleep but there’s no way this’ll wake them up or even travel upstairs at all. I’m also surprised at the speed, it grinds a lot slower than I was expecting. Again, I knew how long an average 18g light roast at espresso was supposed to take, but that feels a lot longer when you’re just staring at it. It’s only about 20-30 seconds but it’s a very slow 20-30 seconds when you’re wanting coffee.

V4 was mostly improvements to reduce static, and I can really tell. I remember seeing videos and reviews online where people complained about retention, but even without RDT I got basically zero retention. At most, 0.1g. I basically got out exactly what I put in. In case you’re curious, the upgrades in V4 are a stainless steel declumper (instead of plastic), an enlarged exit shute, and a repositioned de-ionizer probe, all designed to eliminate static. They do a great job. I still use the bellows but I could probably get away without using it if I really wanted to. It’s kinda fun to use though, so I’ll be using it every time.

When I’ve used it for a while I’ll eventually put up a proper in-depth review of it, but so far I love it.